Spruce Creek: Home To Wildlife, Gamble Place

The Soap Baron's Hunting Lodge, Where The Rich And Famous Gathered Early In The Century, Is Sometimes Open To The Public.

June 12, 1994|By Linda Creesy, Sentinel Correspondent

PORT ORANGE — No one is sure how James Gamble, the Ivory soap magnate and a frequent winter visitor to the Daytona Beach area, stumbled across a 150-acre piece of land in Volusia County.

He eventually built a hunting and fishing lodge on it. Now, it is known as Gamble Place.

''He had a boat and traveled Spruce Creek, that's probably how he found this,'' said Georgia Zern of Port Orange, program coordinator for Gamble Place, on the grounds of Spruce Creek Preserve. ''He first started coming to Daytona Beach in 1862 on his honeymoon and came back every winter for 70 years.''

Gamble, an avid outdoorsman, bought the tract for $600 from George Leffman in April 1898. But it wasn't until 1907 before he built the lodge and an adjacent orange packing barn.

His main home in Ormond Beach was destroyed in the 1960s, so Gamble Place - designated a historic site in 1993 - is what remains. Besides the lodge and packing plant, the property also includes a replica of Snow White's cottage that was built by Gamble's son-in-law, Judge Alfred Nippert, in 1938.

The lodge features many of the characteristics of Florida's Cracker style of architecture, including large and open porches, an open breezeway that separates the kitchen from the rest of the house, and large and often-paired windows for cross-ventilation.

The surrounding Spruce Creek Preserve, on Taylor Road just west of Interstate 95, is home to wildlife, including alligators, woodpeckers and ospreys, and native plants such as orchids, ferns, blackgums, maples and elms. A 300-year-old magnolia tree and 500-year-old oak tree grow on the property.

Until Gamble's death in 1932, it wasn't unusual to see John D. Rockefeller, J.J. Heinz and President William Howard Taft at Gamble Place. Gamble and Rockefeller donated the seed money for what became Bethune-Cookman College.

''Mary McLeod Bethune rode her bicycle to Gamble's Ormond Beach home,'' Zern said. ''When he asked her to show him the college, she pointed to her head and said, 'It's up here.' He was very tolerant and religious and believed in equal rights,'' said Zern, 42, who has been coordinator at Gamble Place for two years.

''He personally sponsored the education of several African-American men and made sure they graduated from college. He was also quite philanthropic and often donated a lot of fruit from his grove to charity.''

One of Gamble's good friends, Roley Johnson, served as property caretaker and a hired hand. Although Gamble didn't drink,

Johnson was known to ''nip at the bottle,'' Zern said.

''That says so much for him (Gamble) because their personalities were so different.''

With his long, flowing white beard, many children thought Gamble was Santa Claus. One Christmas, he sent a gold bracelet to a lady who convinced him he was the ''real thing.''

''We get a lot of visitors from Cincinnati,'' Zern said. ''I've been able to learn a lot more about the Gambles and the company. One thing I constantly hear from former Procter & Gamble employees is how generous the company is. Every year, they send a large Ivory soap box to each employee filled with goodies, sometimes a turkey.''

In 1983, Gamble family descendants Louise and Louis Nippert donated the preserve to the Nature Conservancy. Five years later, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach entered into an agreement with the conservancy to manage the property and its historic resources.

''I find it a little surprising that Gamble and his descendants had such environmental vision,'' Zern said. ''It was farsighted of the Nipperts to donate this to the conservancy. We really need to protect that.''

Gamble Place is only open to the public two days a week from September through mid-June and only by reservation. Student programs are conducted at the preserve during the summer.